Tuesday, December 10, 2013

US Navy predicts summer ice-free Arctic in 3 years

The 2013 summer minimum in Arctic sea ice extent was 6 million square kilometers, 50% higher than the minimum in 2012, and Arctic sea ice has been within 1 standard deviation of the 1979-2000 mean throughout most of 2013.

Based on this trend, according to The Guardian, the US Navy has predicted the Arctic will be summer ice free in 3 years.

3 comments:

"Monthly averaged ice volume for September 2013 was 5,000 km3. This value is 56% lower than the mean over this period, 70% lower than the maximum in 1979, and 0.6 standard deviations below the 1979-2013 trend." The ice volume is declining at a mean of 3,200 km3 per decade according to the Polar Science Center. http://psc.apl.washington.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/schweiger/ice_volume/BPIOMASIceVolumeAnomalyCurrentV2.png